


when you lie to me it's in the small stuff

by goingmywaydoll



Series: you and me [2]
Category: Schitt's Creek
Genre: Aging, Backrubs, M/M, Married Life, Vignette, i'm sensing a theme, patrick is stubborn and david takes care of him, with no small amounts of snark
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-29
Updated: 2019-07-29
Packaged: 2020-07-25 16:01:59
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,649
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20028502
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/goingmywaydoll/pseuds/goingmywaydoll
Summary: “So I’m having a little back pain,” Patrick says and David has to resist every urge he has to let out a laugh. Instead, he sets his lips in a thin line and nods, patient and stoic.“What gave it away?” David asks and maybe he’s not being so patient.





	when you lie to me it's in the small stuff

**Author's Note:**

> so this was actually written in april and i'm only getting around to posting it now, oops. a little more light-hearted than the previous part, though surprisingly on-theme.

Patrick likes to show up at the store midday when he’s sick, after David has tucked him into bed with a box of tissues and ibuprofen. He waits until David has left the apartment so he can’t force him to stay and he shows up at lunchtime with food from the cafe, pretending he doesn’t have a fever and can get through a sentence without sneezing. When David takes his computer away from him because he’s working too late, he waits until David closes his eyes to pull it back out, “just for five more minutes,” like he’s a kid at the playground except he wants to balance their books. 

He also stayed up until four am to wire the lights in the store the day they opened, instead of calling an electrician the next morning. He stepped on a branch the day he proposed and decided that meant the day was ruined and they had to turn around. Patrick is so quietly stubborn that when they were planning their wedding and sitting in the cafe with Alexis, Patrick had gone to the bathroom and David had slouched on the table, muttering into his hands about Patrick putting his foot down and Alexis had looked at him like he had grown a second head. But then Patrick had returned and they kept planning and then Patrick went back to the store and Alexis turned to David after with a look that said, _ Okay, I get it now? _and David had smirked.

So when David tells him to be careful lifting boxes in the back, Patrick sends him a fond if exasperated smile, tells him he’ll be okay and David clamps his mouth shut. He pointedly does not remind his husband that the last time he lifted something heavy he almost had to go to the hospital because that would only make Patrick want to carry_ more _ boxes. Because Patrick is stubborn. 

So if Patrick wants to lift boxes of bath oil while David takes inventory, then David is going to stand by the counter and watch him when Patrick isn’t looking.

“David.” David looks up from the clipboard, pretending that he had been looking at it the whole time. Which he wasn’t. Because he was watching Patrick. Because he doesn’t want to drive Patrick to the hospital with a thrown back. 

“Mmh?” he asks, pushing his reading glasses up the bridge of his nose. Patrick is looking at him like he doesn’t believe for a second David was actually doing inventory. 

“My back is fine,” Patrick says and David tries for an inquisitive look.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

Patrick rubs a hand over his face, letting out a quiet, incredulous laugh. “You’ve been watching me lift these boxes for ten minutes. I’ll be fine.”

David pauses before sagging his shoulders and pulling a face. His worry is outweighing his own obstinance. “Will you though?” 

“_Yes_,” Patrick says, and as if to demonstrate his point, he picks up the next box and walks into the back, sending a pointed look over his shoulder. 

David narrows his eyes at him. “You know, I would do it…” he says thoughtfully.

“Except you hate carrying heavy things,” Patrick fills in and David shakes his head. “And your knees.”

“No, except _ I’m afraid of throwing out my back._” He isn’t _ really _ afraid of throwing out his back. But he’s noticed the way Patrick is holding tension in his lower back, the way he sometimes has to massage it when he thinks David isn’t looking. “And don’t bring up my knees.”

“What knees?” Patrick asks, innocent and arrogant all at once. David glares at him. Patrick sighs, crossing the length of the store to stand in front of David. He takes the clipboard from him, hooking an arm around his waist to pull him closer. “Your worry for my back is sweet.” Patrick runs a finger across David’s knit brow, as if he could smooth it out and brush away all the stress. “But really, I’m fine. I wouldn’t do it if I wasn’t.”

“Wouldn’t you though?” David’s voice kicks up an octave, his voice dubious. Patrick just replies with a patient smile, slanting his lips over David’s. He’s trying to pull David away, distract him and change the topic, and somewhere in the deep recesses of David’s brain, he knows this. But he lets him do it anyway. 

David is texting about Stevie about breakfast the next day as Patrick crawls into bed beside him that night. He’s only half paying attention so he almost misses the way Patrick lets out a hiss as he reaches for something on the bedside table. He glances up from his phone, his dinner already feeling heavy in his stomach even though it’s probably nothing, just something like a crick in his neck.

“Okay?” he asks, putting his phone aside. Patrick nods but doesn’t say anything, falling back against the pillow. “Feel like using words?”

“I’m fine.” The words come out faint, through gritted teeth. 

“You seem it.” David’s voice comes out a little more cutting than he means and Patrick sends him an impatient look. 

“Can you just pass me the ibuprofen?” 

David complies, reaching over Patrick to the table on his side of the bed and plucking the bottle of painkillers from it. Patrick holds out his hand, expecting David to hand him the bottle, but he doesn’t, instead opening the bottle himself and tapping two of the pills into his hand. He drops them into Patrick’s hand and passes him his own glass of water. Patrick swallows them and he sends David a grateful smile but David can tell it’s tinged with remorse. 

“So I’m having a little back pain,” Patrick says and David has to resist every urge he has to let out a laugh. Instead, he sets his lips in a thin line and nods, patient and stoic. 

“What gave it away?” David asks and maybe he’s not being so patient. 

“I think it’s just soreness.” Patrick pointedly ignores David’s question and rubs his lower back. David’s eyes track the movement.

David considers him for a long moment. “Fine, I won’t take you to the hospital.”

“Was that a possibility?” Patrick looks alarmed, but David knows it’s mostly faked. Patrick knows him, knows exactly what’s going through David’s mind right now as David turns on his side, resting on his elbow to face Patrick fully. “David, really, I’m fine.”

“Will you promise to tell me when it’s not fine anymore?” he asks before he can stop himself.

Patrick’s lips twist into a sweet, honeyed sort of smile, goofy and adoring and it makes David’s heart swoop. “Yes,” he says emphatically and kisses David’s forehead. 

“Good, now take off your shirt.”

Patrick looks at him, taken aback. “Sorry?”

“I’d be offended that that’s your response to me asking you to take your clothes off if it wasn't so out of line with my usual technique.”

“Which is?” The look Patrick is giving him is sly and teasing but David doesn’t let it distract him. Instead, he rucks his hands under Patrick’s tee-shirt and pulls it over his head. Patrick leans in, expecting a kiss, but instead David ducks away, leaving Patrick even more confused.

“Turn over,” David says, pushing himself up so he’s kneeling on the bed. Patrick doesn’t move, looking bewildered. David motions with his hand for him to flip over and he caves, gently turning over so he’s lying on his stomach as David reaches for lotion.

“What’s happening?”

“Just relax.” David hitches one knee over Patrick’s legs so he can rest comfortably on his thighs, warming the lotion in his hands before pressing his hands lightly on Patrick’s lower back. Patrick lets out a low groan and David can see his eyes fall shut as he begins to knead at the muscles of his back, slow and methodical. 

His thumbs dip into the divot at the end of Patrick’s spine and he can feel Patrick melt into the mattress. He works his hand up Patrick’s back leisurely, feeling his own tension and anxiety waning as Patrick’s muscles relax under his hands. He reaches Patrick’s shoulders, pushing into the knots there, and Patrick lets out a hiss of pain.

“I know.” David leans down so he can whisper in his ear as he massages out the tightness, pressing a kiss to the back of Patrick’s neck before moving his hands down his back again. 

He knows exactly where to knead out the taut muscles, so familiar with Patrick’s back and what it should feel like under his touch. The noises Patrick is making beneath his hands should be criminal and would be distracting if David wasn’t so focused on pressing out the tension. He isn’t sure how long he sits there, running his hands up and down Patrick’s back in soothing circles, alternating pressure with gentle scratches and feather-light touches. He thinks he could do this for hours, dipping his hands into the familiar contours of Patrick’s back as he comes undone beneath him. 

Patrick blinks his eyes open drowsily when David crawls off of him, curling onto his side and putting his head on the pillow next to Patrick’s, who shifts in response, lying on his side to face David. “Thank you.” His voice is thick and quiet. He’s the picture of relaxation, his cheeks slightly flushed, his eyes blinking open and shut slowly as he looks at David. 

David hasn’t seen him this unencumbered in a while and he reaches to run his thumb across his cheek. “Absolutely no problem.” 

Patrick smiles lazily at him, like he can’t even bring himself to pull his lips into a fully-fledged one and David loves him so much, loves him this sleepy and open and unfettered. He watches as Patrick lets his eyes fall shut. David follows not long after.

**Author's Note:**

> you can find me on tumblr at [brewerspatrick](http://www.brewerspatrick.tumblr.com).


End file.
